With 2012 right around the corner, its time for golfers to start thinking about how they can improve their golf games in the coming year. Here are 5 goals every golfer should have heading into next year.

1. Find A Golf InstructorGolf is a hard enough game as it is and trying to improve on your own makes it even harder. If you’re looking to make vast improvements in your golf game, find an expert and get to work! Whether you take a lesson once a week or once every three months, at least you will have some guided direction down the correct path.

2. Get Your Clubs FitGolf clubs have come a long way over the past decade. Arguably, club fitters have come even further in their ability to fit golfers to their perfect club specifications. With new technologies like TrackMan, FlightScope, and Sam Putting Lab, club fitting has become an essential part of the game of golf. Do yourself a favor this year and go get fit from an expert club fitter.3. Track Your ProgressIt’s hard to see improvement if you don’t know what areas of your game need work. I am a very big proponent of keeping track of your playing statistics (Fairways Hit, Greens In Regulation, Putts Per Round, Scrambling %). A website I refer my students to is www.egolfplan.com. This site allows you to keep statistics just like the PGA Tour does. Start keeping track of your stats ASAP and you’ll figure out what needs work!

4. Get On A Practice PlanWhen I watch most golfers practice, there doesn’t seem to be much purpose behind it. One of the reasons that P90X is so sucessful is because it provides people with a detailed 90-day workout schedule and meal guide. Apply these same principles to your golf game. Determine how much time you can spend practicing your golf game per week. Once you figure out how much time you can allot to practicing, start planning out when you are going to work on what aspect of your game. You’ll be amazed at how effecient your practice sessions become!

5. Introduce A Friend To The GameOne of the best ways to motivate yourself to get out to practice or play is to have a friend there urging you on. Just ask people who workout a lot how much better workouts go when you have a workout partner! The same goes for golf. The next time you head to the golf course, invite a friend that doesn’t normally frequent the golf arena. If you have a golf lesson scheduled soon, ask your golf instructor if you can bring a friend along. I’m sure they’ll say YES!

I hope you find this helpful and use these ideas to improve your golf game in 2012. Thanks for reading.

Arguably one of the best aspects of my job is teaching Junior Golfers.There 5 key elements that must be addressed when working with juniors.

Your Must Make it FUN – Teaching Junior golf is all about fun. Think about learning golf back in the day…you must play the ball down, don’t make to much noise, junior golfers are not allowed on the golf course until the afternoon. Wow can we fathom why golf is in decline…all you need to do is go to a soccer field on a Saturday morning and notice the difference in FUN.

Bend the Rules – Let the juniors tee it up from everywhere… the big goal here is to have a high success ratio with contact.

Always play games and award points for everything – Games are a great way of keeping your junior golfer active in golf. Whether it is how many putts they can make from 3 feet or to have many balls are in the air with a bucket of balls. Games always make it interesting.

Take a Cart – Do you remember when you sat on your Dad’s lap and drove the family car? Same idea with a golf car…they will love it and spark and interest going to the golf course…. just keep it safe.

Create your own course – If the driving range is not busy…I mean no one on the range, play a hole to one of the flags. Or play a hole only 75 yards away from the green, go ahead and be the junior golfer course designer.

Follow these simple FUN steps and soon your junior golfer will be hooked on this great game for life…isn’t the end goal?